Quiet of the Night
by Saeleth
Summary: The one thing the sand doesn't protect is his heart. They were the same, yet different. 50 themes on Hinata and Gaara


Thanks to Anya for being wonderful enough to suffer through all the comma and hyphen abuse associated with fics like these. Done for one of the finest LJ comms (in my opinion) 1sentence.

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**Motion**

Hinata watches the sand flow and twine around him as a cat would; she's surprised when those little eddies of sand start to shift around her, but soon accepts it as one of those things she'd rather not know.

**Cool**

Sometimes when he sits and stars at the stars, in the quiet of the night, _she's_ there, and he answers her unvoiced question-cool fingers trace the kanji again and again-love.

**Young**

Once he had been carefree and young, and when she's with him, maybe he isn't as young, but he's almost as carefree-it is something about her.

**Last**

Her blank eyes stare as he disappears in a haze of sand, and she hopes that this won't be the last time she sees him.

**Wrong**

Gaara has learned many things, and one of them is that he isn't a monster, that death doesn't affirm one's life, and that most of all, that he's _loved_; maybe it isn't so bad to be wrong.

**Gentle**

She's heard things about what he's done with his hands; but they are gentle when he strokes her dark hair back or when he rewraps her bandages (even if his expression is not).

**One**

Hinata had once hoped that Naruto would like her, that she wouldn't disappoint her father, that she would change into a better person; but times change, and her one hope is for Gaara.

**Thousand**

Gaara knows he has spilled innocent blood without caring; but ever since he met her, he has felt it weigh on him so unbearably-he doesn't deserve one like her.

**King**

Hinata watches the sand swirl around him, making him impenetrable to enemies; the way the sand responds to his commands is almost as if it's alive.

**Learn**

They teach each other many things; Gaara has learned about the feelings and emotions he thought himself separate from, and Hinata has learned that she is second to no one.

**Blur**

He is a blur behind the sand, an indistinct form; but Hinata thinks, _he's still here, that's something._

**Wait**

He heard her call out to him to wait, turning he saw her chasing after him with a pack bumping her hips; "you're not leaving without me, Gaara," she told him when she caught up, breathless.

**Change**

He didn't understand why Hinata was so focused on changing herself, until he caught himself thinking _she won't like that _and understood that change wasn't bad, if it was done for the right reason.

**Command**

He thought he had been discreet, but as he stands, ready to leave Konoha yet again, Kiba catches up to him-"If you make Hinata cry, you'll regret your life,"-and he almost responds that he does regret his life, but then the thought of Hinata crying fills his mind; he doesn't answer Kiba, he knows he could never harm Hinata.

**Hold**

They walk side by side through the Hyuuga compound; Gaara withdraws inside himself, until he feels the light pressure of her hand in his, and looks to see her cute smile, encouraging him onwards.

**Need**

Kankuro has always been afraid of his self-sufficient younger brother, but after seeing him relying so deeply on a girl; he thinks maybe the gap between them can be closed, that they could be brothers and not what twisted relationship had sprung up between them.

**Vision**

He had thought at first, that her vision had been muddled, or her supposed feelings were only an illusion, but Gaara starts to hope that maybe there is someone for him.

**Attention**

Shino and Kiba visit, and she spends the afternoon reminiscing about Team Kurenai, not noticing how Gaara glowers at the two males paying so much attention to Hinata.

**Soul**

Temari watches the two of them walking in the gardens, and muses out loud, "is it possible he holds a soul of his own?"

**Picture**

He eyes the pictures she has set on her dresser, one of her genin team, and a few casual ones; he picks up her genin shot to peer more closely, when a smaller picture flutters out; and he sees his stats card from the chuunin exams, but he doesn't know why that makes him smile and feel happy.

**Fool**

She throws one kunai after another into the wooden post; she is a fool for thinking and hoping that things would change because she wished them to.

**Mad**

He thought he was mad, but with a few touches she rearranges his world until he is sane and stable.

**Child**

He watches Hinata bounce Shino's baby boy on her knee, and thinks, _is that what a mother truly is? _

**Now**

He has always been a man of the moment, but when Hinata asks him of his future plans he stumbles over the words, "I haven't thought that far ahead, but I'd like it to be with you,' then blushes.

**Shadow**

She frowns, biting her lip, when she sees the shadows under Gaara's eyes; it seems he has spent another night awake.

**Goodbye**

It's an awkward silence between him and his siblings, they've never been close-but as they wish him good-bye, he finds himself missing their familiar presence-but not enough to join them and leave behind what he's built here.

**Hide**

Hinata has never felt so free with someone; she finds herself spilling secrets to him, because he doesn't judge, only listens; and he knows her weaknesses now, but he doesn't scoff and exploit them, rather he's proud that she's overcome them in a way he has yet to do.

**Fortune**

It's silly, she knows, but she likes to think that fortune threw them together.

**Safe**

He had thought that the sand would protect him from anything; but seeing Hinata with Kiba, and the expression in Kiba's eyes, he clutches his chest and wonder what's happening to him.

**Ghost**

Silent like a ghost, he drifts down the hallways to stare at her sleeping form, carefully he wraps the blanket around her shoulder to protect against the chill; he leaves when she mutters his name in her sleep, but next morning she finds a few grains of sand on her pillow.

**Book**

He sees her quite often, an open book in her lap and a dreamy expression on her face; finally he asks what's so good about them, he's never really had time to read, but now he makes time just to hear her voice tell him about worlds far away where the impossible is reality.

**Eye**

Those eyes that see everything are filling with tears, and he hates himself even more, but surely she'd be better off without him around.

**Never**

She holds him tight, telling him over and over that she'll never leave him and he clings to her, the rock his storm batters against.

**Sing**

She hums under her breath, it's nothing special, but when he doesn't hear her, he finds his eyes roving the room and worrying.

**Sudden**

Their relationship was a slow process, but to those around them, it bloomed before their eyes.

**Stop**

The sand has always been there, stopping others from getting to close, but for Hinata it's no barrier at all.

**Time**

Being with her is a paradox, it seems like an eternity together, but it ends too quickly.

**Wash**

Hinata chases after him, encased in his tornado of sand, to clutch his arm, he doesn't need to do this for her sake; he doesn't like that, they do deserve it after all, but his face is oddly tender as he uses his water bottle to wash sand out of her cuts.

**Torn**

Many tell her that he is a monster, that he kills without regret, but that conflicts with the man she knows; quiet, shy, and loving--but these people care for her, and she almost gives in, until Naruto reminds her those same people called _him_ a monster.

**History**

He wants to tell her the truth about his past and he starts to, but she places one slim finger on his mouth, "I've been told; it doesn't change a thing."

**Power**

He feels the beast stir inside him, and he's that close to succumbing, when Hinata rolls over and presses herself firmly against his chest; he thought the beast was powerful, but she has subdued it without even waking.

**Bother**

Sakura has been dying to ask this question since she found out about Hinata and Gaara, -I don't mean to bother, but why him Hinata? I thought you liked Naruto-Hinata simply replies, "we are very much alike, Sakura, and love has never needed a reason, has it?"

**God**

He had thought himself above the petty things that most humans were absorbed in, but Hinata draws him down, and he begins to see the importance of those trivial details.

**Wall**

Hinata once felt there was a wall between them, but as she stands on her toes to kiss him, she feels the last few bricks crumble away, and disappear when he kisses her back.

**Naked**

When he sleeps, his face is naked, without a mask between him and the world, and Hinata knows she is privileged to see this innocent Gaara.

**Drive**

He watches her throw punch after punch, kick after kick, until she's bleeding from places rubbed raw; he doesn't understand the passion she's thrown into this training, but he's never had to really worry about not being strong enough with the sand as his armor.

**Harm**

He's dismayed when he realizes he has a weak spot in her, and spends many restless nights tossing and turning, until finally she tells him-"I can defend myself!"-but he wonders still.

**Precious**

He had scoffed at Naruto; at fighting for what one held dear, but when he sees Hinata-his Hinata-lying there, he begins to understand.

**Hunger**

Hinata stares at this unfamiliar person, his face is contorted and he's panting, like a crazed beast; she eyes the match below and how he's straining towards it; she won't let this happen-she clutches him tightly, and gradually he returns to her; but it was too close and she wonders if that certain hunger will ever leave.

**Believe**

He had once believed that death affirmed life, but with Hinata by his side, he's forced to see that life and what one does with it is what affirms life, and it's something valuable and to be protected.


End file.
